


The Stupidest Genius

by rinthegreat



Series: Physics Majors [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-30
Updated: 2013-12-30
Packaged: 2018-01-06 17:37:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1109669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rinthegreat/pseuds/rinthegreat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Companion piece to "The Smartest Idiot".  Naruto accidentally stumbles into the wrong lecture hall his freshman year of college and winds up in Advanced Classical Physics with a brutal professor and a huffy raven-haired classmate.  Little does he know, this small mistake will change his life in more ways than one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Stupidest Genius

**Author's Note:**

> Also available on my fanfiction account under the same penname.

 

             Naruto started his freshman year at Konoha University with an undeclared major.  He’d signed up for a random variety of classes – Ancient History, English Literature, Psychology 101, Intro to Business – with the hopes of figuring out what exactly he wanted to do with his life.  At first, he was content remaining in his hometown and working at Ichiraku Ramen until he figured it out.  An article he was directed to by his high school sweetheart, Sakura, detailing the failures and shortcomings associated with waiting to go to college, changed his mind.

            And so, several months later, the blond found himself in his dorm room more than a few hours away from Ichiraku and Sakura, hanging out with his new friends Kiba, Chouji, and Ino – all of whom he met during the freshman orientation scavenger hunt – until the wee hours of the morning before their first day of classes.  It should have been no surprise to anyone, then, that he was awoken by his newly dubbed best friend and roommate, Kiba, 15 minutes before his first class was supposed to start.

            With no time for breakfast, Naruto sprinted out of his room – teeth brushed and wearing clothes, at least – cursing himself for not finding the buildings and rooms all his classes were in the day before.  He now had 10 minutes to find his Ancient History lecture which was supposed to be in Datson 102.  He skidded to a halt in front of a large, brick building and glanced at his schedule, confused.  The building he was standing in front of claimed to be called Watson, not Datson.  Naruto decided the people who wrote the schedule made a typing error, and threw open the door.

            There, in front of him, was lecture hall 102.  Perfect.  He was about to walk in when someone flew straight into him, causing them to fall to the ground.

            “Oh, I-I’m terribly so-sorry,” the girl stuttered in apology.

            A glance at the clock revealed that Naruto had a whopping three minutes before class started.  Not one to be rude, he helped her up and rushed into the lecture room shouting that he was sorry over his shoulder.

            The moment the doors slammed behind him, Naruto instantly regretted waking up so late; the class was packed.  A quick glance revealed a seat near the front next to a raven-haired man who was glancing curiously in his direction.  The blond planted a large grin on his face and approached him.  “Hi!  My name’s Naruto.  And you are?”

            “Hn,” the stranger responded before looking away.  Not used to being ignored so readily, Naruto bristled.

            “Hey did you even here me?”  No response.  “Hello?!”

            But before he could harass the rude asshole any further, a grey-haired man with a patch over his eye entered.  The raven next to him sat straighter, leaving Naruto to assume this was the professor.  He watched the newcomer with interest.

            “Welcome, welcome,” he began, smiling at the students.  “To Advanced Classical Physics.  If you have found yourself in the wrong lecture hall, as some unlucky freshman does every semester, I implore you to remain for the entirety of the lecture.  Leaving disrupts the class, which means I have to repeat the last few minutes next lecture and we all know there isn’t enough time in a semester for that.”

            Well shit.  Turns out Datson was a real building after all.  Ignoring the professor’s request, Naruto attempted to stealthily sneak his way out of his seat to the door.  It was in vain though; he was spotted.

            “Young man!”  Naruto turned sheepishly.  “I said you will sit down for the entire lecture.”

            Naruto decided to try and argue his way out of it.  “But, sir, I’ll miss my first day of Ancient History if I do.”

            The professor merely smirked at him.  “Well then, perhaps you shouldn’t have gotten lost.”  Naruto opened his mouth to respond, but was interrupted.  “Sit down, young man, and I don’t want to hear anything else come from your mouth unless I specifically ask.”

            He grumbled a bit, but sat down regardless, swearing to never again wake up with so little time to spare.  Professor Hatake – as the name now written on the blackboard proclaimed – then went into a long winded speech about his classroom policies that Naruto mostly ignored.  It wasn’t until he began his lecture that the blond finally began to pay attention.

            Five minutes in, he fished his notebook labeled Ancient History out of his backpack and began taking notes.  By twenty minutes into the lesson, he wondered why he’d always hated physics in the past – this class made it seem so interesting.  When Professor Hatake dismissed the class at exactly 11:50, Naruto decided he’d drop the history class in favor of taking this instead. 

He stretched his arms over his head and turned to the raven seated next to him.  “Some lecture, huh?”

“Hn,” was the only response he got.

“Whatever, asshole.”  He crammed his notebook into his backpack before leaving.  On the way out, he nearly ran into someone again.

“Sorry,” he muttered.

“Don’t worry about it, man,” the spikey-haired brunet responded.  “And don’t worry too much about Sasuke either; he’s a pain in the ass to everyone.”

Naruto looked up surprised.  “Sasuke?”

“The guy you were sitting next to in lecture.”  Naruto suddenly recognized him as the guy sitting on the other side of…Sasuke.

“Oh.  Are you friends?”

“I guess you could say that.  We met last year taking all the prereqs and freshman classes.  My name’s Shikamaru, by the way.”  They shook hands, before Shikamaru looked at his watch.  “Well good luck in Ancient History, see ya around.”  And with a lazy wave he was gone.

After a meeting with his advisor, Naruto decided to change all his classes in order to take the Advanced Classical Physics he’d stumbled into.  It turned out there were a lot of prereqs needed to get in, and he ended up with a harder schedule than he’d expected.  English Literature became Calculus I, Psychology 101 was replaced by Chemistry 101, and Intro to Business was now Intro to Biology.  After having all his professors – both old and new – sign his pink slip, he decided to go the whole nine yards and declare his major; physics.

            Naruto quickly became friends with Shikamaru and would share stories with him before class started.  The brunet was some kind of engineering major who enjoyed physics enough to continue in it, and Naruto looked forward to seeing him again in the approaching semesters.

            The blond passed Classical Physics 1 and 2 in the top percentile of the class and moved on to Modern Physics.  He found it easier and more interesting to not look up anything – theories or equations – ahead of time and rather learned everything in the lecture itself.  The method was working wonderfully for him, a phenomenon known as being an oral learner according to Kiba, up until the second semester of Modern Physics.

            Naruto was doing some practice problems for that class one evening, procrastinating writing a paper for his Technical Writing class, when he was struck by an epiphany.  After scribbling down some proofs and equations for a few hours, he finally had everything he needed.  The paper flowed effortlessly from there, and he turned it in the next day.

            He didn’t think about the paper again until the professor called him to her office after class a few days later.  She then sat him down and starting using words like “plagiarism” and “expulsion”.  It took Naruto a few moments to realize that she was threatening to have him expelled from the school on the grounds he plagiarized his paper.  He tried to argue that he’d written the paper on his own, that there was no way he copied anything, but it was to no avail.  He was placed on Academic Suspension until the hearing.

            He finally got up the nerve to ask her what exactly it was she thought he was copying, and was directed to a paper written by a guy named Schrödinger titled _Quantization as an Eigenvalue Problem_.  After reading it – and feeling incredibly stupid the entire time – Naruto swore he would never again try to derive something without looking it up to see if it existed already.

            It was at this time, while Naruto was feeling depressed about his future, that Professor Hatake knocked on his dorm door.  To say he was surprised would be a gross understatement.

            “Professor, what are you doing here?”  He bit his tongue after that.  Tact was not something he was particularly good at.

            “I was informed that you copied over half of Schrödinger’s most famous paper.”  Naruto swallowed.  The grey-haired professor who had inspired him to become a physicist was the last person he wanted to think poorly of him.  The man continued to speak.  “I was also informed that you claimed to not know you were copying it.”  The blond’s shoulders slumped.  It was clear the other man didn’t believe it.  “How, I ask, is it possible for you to not know about the wave equation?”

            “You would never believe me even if I told you, professor.  Nobody does.”  Naruto felt defeated.  His dreams were all but smashed now.  Perhaps he should’ve stayed home and worked at Ichiraku after all.

            “Sasuke believes you, even if he would never tell you that himself.”  The blond looked up, stunned.  The raven-haired asshole who refused to say more than two words to him believed he was innocent?  Impossible.  “He argued most adamantly on your behalf, so I came to see for myself.  Now tell me, Naruto.  How can someone accidentally plagiarize _Quantization as an Eigenvalue Problem_?”

            And so Naruto told him.  He told him about being an oral learner and his policy to never look things up before class because it would kill the novelty.  Then he told him much more; he told him about how he entered college as an undeclared major, how he accidentally stumbled into his class, and how he decided to pursue physics.  After what felt like hours of talking and explaining himself, Naruto finally fell silent.  The grey-haired man stood to leave.

            “I believe you, Naruto,” he reassured.  “I’ll see what I can do.”

            “Thank you, Professor Hatake.”

            “Please, call me Kakashi.”  And he left.

            Naruto never knew what Kakashi did, but somehow all suspicions against him were dropped and he was allowed to return to classes.  His punishment was to rewrite the paper without plagiarizing, which he did without complaint.  And life returned to normal.

            The difference now was how Naruto viewed Sasuke.  Before, the raven had been nothing more than an indifferent asshole who didn’t care about anyone beside himself.  Now, Naruto couldn’t help but wonder what Sasuke really thought of him.  If what Kakashi had said was true, Sasuke was the only person who believed he was innocent – even Kiba had been skeptical.  And so Naruto began to observe the raven more closely.

            What he saw surprised him.  Naruto noticed the subtle sideways glances Sasuke would shoot his way when he thought the blond wasn’t looking.  He saw how at the beginning of class, before Naruto arrived – he wasn’t spying, he was just curious! – Sasuke would glance toward the doors as if waiting for something before returning to whatever book he was reading.  Naruto even became aware of the way the raven’s head would tilt ever so slightly when the blond was talking to Shikamaru; it was almost like he was always listening.

            Even more surprising to Naruto was that he appreciated it.  In fact, he liked it.  He liked knowing that someone was always looking out for him, that someone had his back.  He liked the attention and how it was somehow different from the attention his friends and occasional girlfriend gave him; it made him feel special that he was the only one the raven treated this way.  Naruto even found himself intentionally telling more personal stories to Shikamaru, just to see the subtle little reactions Sasuke would give.  So it was disappointing to him when Shikamaru declared he would not be joining them for Quantum Mechanics or, indeed, any other physics classes.

            Nothing much happened between him and Sasuke his junior year, and Naruto found himself wondering if he wanted something to.  His girlfriends seemed to last shorter than even the ones before that, and Kiba was taking notice.  Sasuke even started to appear in his dreams, and Naruto would be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy it.

            It didn’t register with him that Sasuke was a year older until toward the end of their last semester together.  All of a sudden, he felt stupid.  He could’ve had a chance with the raven, but now it was too late.  He knew Sasuke would soon be gone, working in a lab somewhere far away.

            So it came as a pleasant surprise to him when he found out the raven would be staying for grad school, working under none-other than Kakashi himself.  He spent his senior year weighing his options before deciding that he, too, could use a PhD and Kakshi’s research was fascinating.  Getting to work with Sasuke was just the cherry on top.

            Their first year was a little rough; being the only two students working under Kakashi meant they’d have to eventually learn to get along.  They went from acting like they hated each other to becoming pleasant coworkers and, by the beginning of the second year, they were good friends.  Naruto still didn’t act on his impulses both because he didn’t want to risk their newly formed friendship, and also because he wasn’t entirely sure on the raven’s sexuality.  He was fairly sure the guy was at least sort of interested in men, but wanted to be completely positive before he risked so much.

Naruto didn’t have a lot of down time to think about his feelings for Sasuke anyways; Kakashi worked them to the bone.  They had to TA labs and recitations for physics of all levels, perform experiments, analyze data, and somehow still attend and pass all their classes.  It was worse than being an undergrad, and Naruto found himself often working until the wee hours of the morning.

            This Thursday was another such night.  Naruto had done his experiments the day before – to clear the lab for Sasuke tonight – and was spending his evening analyzing the data.  Well, trying to anyways.  The recitation class he taught Fridays at 9 am needed their quiz grades entered and the answer key posted, and he hadn’t had a chance to all week.  It wasn’t until well after 11 pm that he was even able to start looking at his data from the day before.

            Everything was sloppy and unorganized, and within a couple hours Naruto had passed out on his desk.  He slept peacefully, dreaming of nothing, until he was awoken by a loud slam on the other side of the office.  He awoke with a snort and glanced at the clock.  1:02 am.  Great.

            “Naruto?”  A questioning voice drifted over.  He opened his mouth to respond, but slammed it shut when an idea suddenly popped into his head.  He wanted to see what Sasuke would do if he caught Naruto sleeping.  So instead he closed his eyes and parted his lips slightly, feigning sleep.

            Soft footsteps indicated the raven’s approach before they stopped right in front of him.  The blond resisted the urge to open his eyes and see what Sasuke was doing.  He imagined the raven’s dark eyes looking down at him, bangs hanging over his face.  Unbidden, Naruto’s heart picked up its pace.

            A shifting of fabric was the only warning Naruto had before he felt something press against his lips.  It was gone a moment later, but he still felt electricity shooting up and down his body.  He was sure he’d imagined it; there was no way Sasuke had just kissed him.

            Just as the thought crossed his mind, something was pressed against his lips once more.  This time they pressed against him harder, as if desperate for something.  All thoughts of him dreaming were thrown from his mind as a soft object – easily identified as a tongue – slid past Naruto’s lips into his mouth.  He had his answer.

            The blond’s arm wrapped itself around the back of Sasuke’s neck to grab his hair before Naruto himself swiftly stood and reversed their positions, pushing the raven down against the desk.  He peered down into the other’s nearly black eyes and tried to come up with some way to start the conversation he’d been dying to have for years now.

            “And just what are you doing?”  He mentally smacked himself for that one.  He had no tact.

“I thought you were asleep.”  To someone who didn’t know Sasuke, they would say he sounded controlled.  Naruto, however, easily identified the slight shake in his voice as panic. 

He was practically unable to contain his amusement when he responded.  “Well I was, but it’s hard to sleep with someone else’s tongue stuck down your throat.”

            “Sorry.”  All amusement faded when Naruto recognized the new tone in Sasuke’s voice as regret.  His stomach plummeted.  He had to salvage the situation somehow.

            “Don’t be.  I wasn’t asleep anyway.”  Naruto scratched the back of his head awkwardly, giving Sasuke room to stand up and escape.  He didn’t.

            “What?”  The confusion from the raven was understandable; Naruto had just completely contradicted the first statement with the second.  Embarrassed, he explained himself.

            “I, uh, woke up when I heard you start your computer.”

            “So why the act?”

            “I wanted to see what you’d do.”

            “Hn.”  Cursing himself once more for his inability to explain the situation, Naruto tried again.

            “Look.  We’ve been dancing around each other for years.  I wanted to see if my theory was correct or not.”

            “And you thought fake sleeping would work?”

            “How else was I supposed to get you to kiss me?”  The blond retorted, feeling his face heat up.

            “You…wanted me to kiss you?”  The other’s voice was unreadable for once, and Naruto felt a sudden unease.  Had Sasuke wanted to kiss him?  Or was it some kind of mistake caused by lack of sleep?

            “Didn’t you?”

            When Sasuke didn’t immediately respond, Naruto’s stomach sunk to the floor.  He’d been wrong all along; the raven didn’t like him.

            But then Sasuke spoke again.  “Wait.  You’re saying you…like me.”  The hope Naruto had all but lost came bubbling right back to the surface at the new tone in the raven’s voice.  He sounded happy, hopeful.

            “And you call me the idiot,” he grinned.  For being considered a genius, Sasuke sure could be stupid sometimes.  But before Naruto could reflect further on this thought, the raven pulled him back down and they were kissing again.  They made out for a few moments before breaking apart for air.

            “I am _not_ an idiot,” Naruto said, resuming the conversation from earlier.

            Sasuke didn’t seem interested in talking too much, instead pulling the blond back down toward him.  “Smartest idiot I’ve ever known.”  Naruto had never been happier to be insulted in his life.


End file.
